A further £8million will be spent on road maintenance over the next two years to help deal with potholes and the maintenance of highways, as councillors voted it through at Barnet Council’s Cabinet meeting last week.

The new investment is in response to the 2022/23 winter period when the number of potholes reported jumped almost 95% to 3699 compared to the previous winter period which saw 1896 reported for repair.

This is in addition to £250,000 invested in advance of the 2022/23 winter period and the approved £11.785 million wider maintenance funding for this year.

Cllr Alan Schneiderman, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: “We know that maintaining roads and dealing with potholes are very important to our residents, and we are responding to this by investing more in our highways.

“Well-maintained roads and pavements are safer for everyone. That’s why we boosted funding immediately after taking control of the council last year and have now agreed to invest an additional £8million. And, as a council that cares for people, our places and the planet, we continue investing towards our longer-term plans of making Barnet a safer and more sustainable place for all.”

In total, including planned and additional investment, the council will be spending almost £17m on roads and pavements this year.

Funding for the highways maintenance programme was agreed at Barnet Environment and Climate Change Committee on 25 January 2023External link, which addresses how to maintain over 700km of highways that Barnet Council is responsible for.